An Experimental Investigation Into the Efficacy of Sport Intellectual Property: Exploring the Effects of Congruence, Brand Equity, and Articulation

Abstract

Abstract: Marketers allocate significant resources to purchase the rights to the sport intellectual property (SIP) of sponsored properties. However, the effectiveness of SIP in influencing sponsorship-related outcomes, such as brand attitudes and purchase intentions, are lacking in empirical studies. Further, it is unknown whether moderators such as congruence, brand equity, and articulation influence SIP usage outcomes. Therefore, between-subject experimental designs involving the manipulation of package designs were undertaken across three studies. Results indicate the use of SIP on packaging was ineffective and did not vary based on congruence, brand equity, and articulation. However, a significant direct effect of sport identification was found, confirming that SIP is effective at influencing sport fans. Results may be discouraging to marketers who assume that SIP affects all consumers, regardless of existing levels of sport identification, and suggest that additional resources may be necessary to impact consumers who are not highly identified sport fans.